Note 389 — SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. (continued 4)

Among other ministers, converted by Whitefield's preaching at Boston, was John Porter, pastor at Bridgewater, who writes: "I knew nothing rightly of my sin and danger, of my need of a Saviour, of the way of salvation by Him; neither was I established in the doctrines of grace, till I heard that man of God, Mr. Whitefield, at Boston." Six months after this, a revival took place at Bridgewater, and a large number of the population were converted. Another minister similarly benefited was the Rev. Jonathan Parsons, of the West Parish of Lyme, where, in the spring of 1741, occurred a revival quite as wonderful as that at Bridgewater. At Portsmouth, where Whitefield preached on October 3, 1740, God's work was remarkably revived some months afterwards. In fact, as is well known, for two or three years subsequent to Whitefield's visit, nearly the whole of New England became another "valley of vision," where "the breath from the four winds" breathed, and, as the newly quickened prophets "prophesied," in thousands of instances, "dry bones" were made to live. It would be absurd to attribute the whole of this to Whitefield's visit; but there cannot be a doubt that, in an indirect way, by the impressions he made on ministers and churches, his usefulness was great. (See Gillies' "Historical Collections," vol. ii., pp. 184-338.)